14. Jonah

14

JONAH

I can’t help it. Things have been rocky tonight. I need to know if me and Lace are still good. Some shit went down tonight, and having Manny smirk across at me doesn’t help. So this is for him. If Lace kisses me back, then I know we’re still good. And Manny can suck it.

“What makes you think you deserve one?” she throws back at me.

“Haven’t I been the perfect gentleman, considering the circumstances?” I tip my chin over to Manny.

“You really think so?”

“Uh, huh.” I press my forehead to hers. My lips follow suit and she lets me kiss her. My dick, which has been painfully hard all night, wakes up and I feel the throb deep and low. I don’t give a shit. Manny can watch until I’m good and ready to let her go. My tongue finds hers and I deepen the kiss. She clutches onto the lapels of my cut, a small mewl leaving her throat. It satisfies me in ways I didn’t know possible. Or maybe it is the fact that Manny’s watching and there ain’t nothing he can do about it.

The one thing I learned from tonight is that I don’t like upsetting Lace. If I can do anything to get the frown off her face, then I will.

I’m also lying to myself when I keep repeating that I’m not into Manny. I’m lying through my teeth. What I am worried about is him spilling the beans. All he has to do is open that fat mouth to Deanna, his bosom buddy, and not only would Prez know, but the entire club.

Lace likes to think it won’t affect things, but I know differently. The men of the club are a brotherhood, and yes, they’re understanding and supportive, but of this? I can’t see how Riot would be okay with it. Then again, why should he have any say in what we’re doing? It’s not serious. It’s just sex. Or so I tell myself. It’s not as if I’m asking Lace to marry me, even if I said all that shit about her belonging to me. That would imply she’s my ol’ lady when she’s not. What I meant was, I don’t want her with any other brother. Aside from Manny. I push that thought aside. It’s dangerous.

I’m definitely not okay with her seeing anyone else, yet I can’t say that I was completely shocked out of my mind when I knew something was going on with Manny. They both said nothing happened until just recently, and while I do believe Lace, they can’t deny they have chemistry. I was suspicious from the start.

Now I’m questioning if it would be so bad. It would if Manny wasn’t bi. Then it wouldn’t be good at all because he’d only want her… and there I go again. I can’t get the two of them off my mind, and I need to because I’m still kissing Lace.

I pull back, and she’s panting. I don’t need to look back to know Manny still has his eyes on us. Suffer, dick. The impulse to act like a child and remind him that I had her first is both juvenile and disgusting. I don’t treat women like pieces of meat, but there’s something gloriously satisfying about being ahead of him. I’m not even sorry about it, and I wouldn’t mind rubbing it in his face a little more, but there’s Lace to think of.

Manny clears his throat and Lace turns to look at him. “Don’t stop on my account.” The bastard is grinning, his arms folded across his chest. “You two look good together.”

I kiss her forehead, ignoring him. “Goodnight, Princess.”

“Good— goodnight,” Lace stammers. It’s dark, but I get the feeling she’s blushing. Kissing me when she has feelings for me and Manny isn’t a small thing, and I feel a little jolt of victory that this could still be happening when she looks up at me almost shyly.

I move my head to the side of hers and whisper in her ear. “When can I see you again?”

She presses her hand to my bicep, and I feel the heat between us. “Soon, I promise.”

“With him?” My voice almost sounds like a growl.

“I think it’s clear you two can’t coexist together for more than five seconds.” She almost sounds forlorn.

“Give it a beat for me to recover from the shock you two were naked together.”

“I told you we weren’t a thing.”

“And I told you we were.”

“You also asked me when we could scour the club,” she reminds me. I did, in fact, say that. And if I recall correctly, I was excited about the prospect.

“That was before I knew it was Manny.”

Her eyes find mine. “And I told you I had someone in mind, but I had no clue if Manny would be okay with it, or if you would. I never planned this, it just sort of happened. In my mind, it was a perfect fit, but seeing how you two don’t exactly see eye to eye has me rethinking if my matchmaking skills are getting a little rusty.”

“Clearly.” I peck her on the lips. “Get on home.”

“Bossy.”

I drag my hands down the sides of her body and cup her ass. That one is definitely for Manny. “Always.”

We pull apart, and I watch her sashay over to Manny. He’s still leaning against his bike. He unfolds his arms and swings a leg over, his eyes on mine as he hands Lace her helmet. Then the fucker leans over and Lace stares at him for a second. He plants a kiss on her lips, essentially tasting me, too. My dick stirs as I watch them. I thought I’d want to punch him. I thought I’d march over there and drag Lace away from him. But I don’t. I watch as she kisses him back, pressing one hand against his chest. All I want to do is fucking join them. Stand behind her as they kiss, fondling her tits and kissing her neck. Plucking at her nipples as Manny fights for her attention, and we both give it to her. And that’s the thing; we can both give it to her without us doing anything. Swords may cross, but that doesn’t mean shit. It doesn’t mean I’m into him. You can get lost in the moment, desire can take over, and that’s all that’s happening here. I palm the back of my neck as my dick begs me to do something.

But all I can do is watch as he slides his tongue in her mouth and I’m left to watch on, just as he was. When she breaks the kiss, she kisses him on the cheek. He smiles, turning back to the front as he smirks at me, then the asshole blows me a kiss. I start towards him, but he yanks his helmet on, releases the kickstand and starts the motorcycle. Lace pulls her helmet on and wraps her arms around him. He takes off from the lot, giving me a finger wave as Lace waves, too. I watch them until they’ve pulled out and disappear into the night.

Dick throbbing, heart racing, I turn and head back to my truck. I don’t need to tell myself that jerking off when I get home won’t even scratch the itch that I have, but I know that there’s a whole world of possibilities, and I’m not so sure that I’m gonna walk away as easily as I thought.

Cash calls an emergency meeting the next day at church. Only the committee members usually attend the meetings, and then the minutes get passed onto us at a later stage. Things must be important if we’re all called in.

There was some shit going down a little while back, when Riot was kidnapped and Shade, his ex-handler’s sniper girlfriend, took out a hit on him for payback for what he did to the Chicago mafia. This was all back when Riot was a sniper, and got mixed up with the wrong crowd. She blamed Riot for his death, and now she’s on the loose. Cash called the club into lockdown when she escaped; that’s when Manny, Cash and Charles rescued Riot.

I’ve only been in the meeting room a handful of times. There’s a long, rounded table that seats twelve, plus it extends for times like this when we all get together. There’s artwork adoring the walls because Prez’s ol’ lady is an interior designer and decorator. She overhauled this whole club a few years back and I have to agree that it’s tasteful with wood beams and neutral walls, while still being bad ass at the same time.

Cash has a coffee maker at one end of the room, along with a small bar, a fridge, the safe behind a large framed logo of the club, and a bookshelf with his collection of maps and old books.

It’s rustic, kinda cowboy meets biker, or something in between.

When I step foot inside the room, the first fucking person I see is goddamn Manny. Of course. He’s arranging some sandwiches on the table, along with some delicious smelling cinnamon rolls. The man has made a mini banquet. The smell of freshly brewed coffee lingers in the air, making my stomach growl.

Only Hawk, Harlem and Pipes are here. They give me a chin lift and carry on their conversation. The men around the table all have their places, so I hang back from the main table with a few of the chairs behind, not wanting to overstep my place. I’ve had to earn my stripes tenfold since I joined the Rebels, and I don’t wanna piss anyone off, namely Tag, who’s known to throw punches out of the blue.

Manny turns. When his eyes meet mine, his lips twitch. He has no clue what I did to myself in my shower last night, and I’d like to keep it that way. Instead, he smiles and says, “Cinnamon roll?” He shoves a plate at me.

They do look and smell delicious. “You got up early just to make these for us? Cash should give you a raise.” I take one off the plate. For some reason, that seems to please him.

“Don’t say that too loudly.” Harlem claps me on the back. “Right, Manny? It’ll go to your head.”

Manny tears his eyes from mine and gives Harlem a chin lift. “H, I was beginning to forget what you looked like.”

He runs a hand through his short hair. The man is built like a truck. He’s good to my sister, and he adores Cami. When Indi was giving him grief before they got together, it didn’t deter him. He knew what he wanted and went for it. Not having a solid father figure in my life wasn’t easy, but the love both Indi and I had for our grandmother spoke volumes. I promised I would never subject my son to violence of any nature. I like what this club stands for and I know every single person in this club has each other’s backs.

“Yeah, this whole Shade shit got us all worried. Me and Tag have been workin’ with Rock and Jett to try and find her,” Harlem says.

“I take it that’s not goin’ so well?” I interject.

His eyes meet mine. “Got it in one. Bitch doesn’t wanna be found, and the trouble with a sniper on the loose is she can come back anytime, undetected.

We couldn’t live in lockdown forever, but the club is still cautious, especially where she’s concerned. She came this far before, and worse; Riot was kidnapped.

“So she just disappeared off the face of the earth?” I say. “Her vengeance was deadly. We know she’ll be back at some point if she’s that bitter and twisted.”

“She’s bat shit crazy,” Manny agrees. “And shady. How she managed to slip away I’ll never know, but our focus was on getting Riot back.”

I smirk. “Bet that’s the most action you’ve seen in a while.”

He stares at me. “In more ways than one.”

“Well, we still gotta be vigilant, especially where Lace and Halo are concerned, especially now that Halo is pregnant,” Harlem says. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been watching Lace for a little while, and why I rushed to the hospital last night. I never want to see anything happen to her. Now that there’s a baby brought into the mix with Riot and Halo, it brings up all kinds of things for me. The need and urge to protect is wild in my veins for the people I care about, and the few I love.

I opened up last night about Jill, and I’ve no idea why, but hearing about Manny and his step-dad hurting him made me want to break some bones. Shared trauma is one thing, but opening up to strangers, pretty much, is another. I can’t deny that I feel comfortable with the two of them. Indigo is the only one I’ve ever shared stuff with. Not even my MC family knows the extent of it, just that it happened and I’m a single dad. I suspect they have sympathy for me, and I know Harlem looks at me with respect, being a single dad himself when his wife walked out. I gotta respect the shit outta that, too. It’s one of the reasons I knew he’d be a good man for my sister, she just had to see past her own nose. Our childhood being around a motorcycle gang was so fucked up, it put Indi off for life. Until Harlem.

Me? This life has always been in my blood. I may be nothing like my old man, thank fuck, but I have the MC brotherhood running through my veins. I always wanted the family, without all the violence.

“Shit’s fucked up when there’s a chance she’d start goin’ after loved ones,” I agree.

“Unfortunately, that’s how some of these crazy fuckers operate,” Harlems sniffs. “We should be thankful she didn’t go after Halo to get back at Riot. Then again, she didn’t keep tabs on anyone he was close to. She wanted him, and she pulled out all the stops to do just that.”

“Nobody really knows what she has plans for next,” Manny’s tone is grave. “Hope she’s not festering somewhere, plotting her next move.”

Harlem gives him a look. “You still recoverin’ from havin’ to hold a gun?”

Manny rolls his eyes. “I’ve held a gun plenty of times. I just don’t like them.”

I chuckle. I can no more see Manny shooting someone than I can see me making goddamn cinnamon rolls. “Thought you’d be worried about messin’ up that hair of yours.”

He narrows his eyes, but it’s playful. “Like I keep saying; I’m not just a pretty face.” He gives me a wink and takes off, sliding the cinnamon rolls on the end of the table near Cash’s chair. My eyes skim over him as he leaves; patent leather pants. A black, fitted Queen t-shirt and his signature apron.

Harlem turns to me. “You good?”

I avert my eyes. “Yup, you?”

“Never been better.” He slaps me on the back. “Haven’t seen you around the clubhouse for a while.”

“You mean pussy?”

“Sweet butts talkin’.”

Shit.

“How do you know what the sweet butts are sayin’?”

He shoves me in the shoulder. “Watch it, only got eyes for your sister. We’re like a coupla teenagers.”

Something I didn’t need to know. “Like I wanna have that image in my head.”

He grins. “The girls talk, then Indigo tells me.”

“So you’re talkin’ about me?”

“No, but she asked if I’d heard if you’re seein’ anyone.”

Great, so now people are noticing.

“Well, you can report back to my nosy sister that I’ve been kinda busy lately. And anyway, she should be happy that I’m not out screwin’ anythin’ that moves.”

“You know your sister, she worries.”

“Thanks for havin’ Eli last night.” I hadn’t exactly told anyone what my emergency was, and Harlem hadn’t cottoned on yet.

“Anytime, Cami adores him, and so do we. Makes me wanna have more.”

“Aren’t you, like, too old to have kids?”

He slaps me upside the head. “Wash your mouth out. Might be older than Indi, but that doesn’t mean I’m over the hill.” He grabs his junk. “Plenty of life left in the old boy yet.”

I glance sideways at him. “Ew.”

I’m about to tell him he’s a kept man with his balls in a sling when Cash comes through the door. The VIP, Ryder, follows behind. “Jesus, fuck, H, put it away,” Cash grumbles.

Harlem slaps me on the back, then takes his place at the table and everyone else follows through the door; Rock and Jett, Tag, Priest, Riot, Hustler, Bronco. Even the Nomad brothers Brew and Haze. Nevada being the loudest, running in late. He and Riot make for the same chair until Cash yells at them to stop acting like children and they sink into their own seats.

“Not gonna beat around the bush,” Cash begins when everyone is settled. “We all know the shit goin’ on with Shade recently. The boys have been doin’ their best to track her down, but findin’ a woman who’s notorious for disappearin’ is like findin’ a needle in a haystack.”

“Added to that, the bitch knows how to stay off the radar,” Jett agrees. “Last we could see, she left Louisiana and was headed to Texas.”

“Pity the Stilettos couldn’t intercept her,” Riot mumbled.

The Stiletto Riders hail from Saddle, Texas, and they operate an all female MC. They’re hardcore into fixing the state’s trafficking problem, and were instrumental in getting Star’s sister, Tilly, back to her after she was kidnapped and trafficked. Their Prez, Diamond, has a history with Bane, our allies in the Ridgehaven Hellions, Mississippi chapter. Still, those chicks can stand on their own two feet, and they do good work on the border.

“She ain’t gonna let sleepin’ dogs lie,” Cash goes on. “I don’t wanna impose another lockdown, but now that Halo is pregnant and Lace is back, we don’t wanna take any chances.”

“Been lookin’ out for them both,” Riot says. “Got prospects on Halo and Star’s office, and the coffee shop.”

“Noticed.” Hustler smirks. He’s the oldest one of the MC, including Cash, but he’s got a wise head on his shoulders and recently bought Muso’s in the French Quarter. That’s where Lace works. “Could send ‘em in to lend a hand now and again.”

“You mean they’re not?” Ryder quirks a brow, glancing at Cash. “Aren’t they supposed to…”

“Little shits,” Cash mutters. Some of the guys snicker. Cash ignores them and points to Pipes, who was recently patched in. “Gonna make it your job to round ‘em up and make sure they help Hustler out, since you think it’s so funny.”

“Fine by me.” Pipes doesn’t lose the smile on his face. We know he doesn’t mean it. Organizing the prospects is a shitty job, and usually up to Tag or Harlem.

Ever since he saved Deanna’s life, he thinks he is untouchable. It was a few years ago now, but obviously Cash hasn’t forgotten. To put your life in front of the club Prez’s ol’ lady is no mean feat. He deserved to be patched in, but that doesn’t mean that Cash doesn’t still give him shit. Especially when he has a cocky grin, like the one he’s sporting, plastered all over his face. He’s just happy he’s swimming up to his eyeballs in pussy. Which is what I was doing when I first got here. Now the one-night thing has kinda lost its charm, not that the sweet butts don’t still go for me. They do. It’s the broodiness, so I’ve been told, and my pretty eyes. If they’d said it was because of the big dick rumors, I would’ve been a lot happier.

“Until we get a bead on fuckin’ Shade, I don’t want either women out of our sight,” Cash barks. Clearly, he’s got a bee in his bonnet about this.

“Do we take it in turns?” Bronco smiles, cracking his knuckles. This earns him a slap upside the head from Riot.

“Watch it.” He points.

Bronco shrugs. “Lace isn’t claimed, and she’s been hangin’ around the club an awful lot.”

“That’s because of Manny,” Riot sighs. My heart jolts in my chest. Uh, what? Does he know somethi— “All that damn food he’s been cookin’ lately. I don’t know if that dude has a death wish, but I’m sure as fuck gonna put on fifty pounds eatin’ the way I have been lately.”

“Oh, fuck, I know.” Nevada takes an enormous bite into the freshly baked cinnamon roll. “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten… okay, aside from my ol’ ladies puss?—”

“Shut the fuck up.” Tag doesn’t usually put up with too much crap before he’s throwing punches.

“Just sayin’, he cooks a mean spread.” Nevada jiggles his eyebrows.

“He’s upped his game today,” Harlem agrees. “Don’t ever wanna piss him off or we’ll all go on strike.”

“Needs to be patched in,” I mutter. Without realizing, all heads turn my way.

Fuck.

I really need to think before I speak…